Special Educational Needs

84. Deputy Darren O'Rourke asked the Minister for Education and Youth to provide an update on her plans to remove a diagnosis as an eligibility criteria for a special education placement; the extent of engagement with teachers and their representatives in developing her plans to date; the extent to which the impact such a change would have on demand for resources has been assessed and the approach taken to this assessment; and the practical steps she intends to take to advance and implement her plans. [75294/26]

I ask the Minister of State to provide an update on his plans to remove a diagnosis as an eligibility criterion for a special education placement; the extent of engagement with teachers and their representatives in developing his plans to date; the extent to which the impact such a change would have on demand for resources has been assessed and the approach taken to this assessment; and the practical steps he intends to take to advance and implement his plans.

As Minister of State with responsibility for special education and inclusion, I am pleased to have this opportunity to speak to this important issue and address concerns which have arisen in recent days. My sole focus and that of my Department officials is to ensure equitable and appropriate access to educational provision. The Minister for Education and Youth, Deputy Naughton, and I have secured a record budget of €3.8 billion for 2027 to build on the good work already happening in the system. I hear from families, parents and schools of the need for better access to supports as and when they are needed. I do not want to see a situation whereby an educational need is not met because a child does not have a diagnosis of a disability. In looking to make improvements in this area, it is building on significant reforms already implemented, including the introduction of a needs-based model for access to supports in mainstream schools in 2017 and similarly for access to SNA supports and summer programmes in more recent years. While these developments have strengthened access to supports, I recognise that diagnosis continues to play an important role for many children, young people and families. I cannot be clearer in saying that no decisions have been made regarding any future changes to eligibility arrangements for special education placements. The work referred to by the Deputy is at an early stage of development. Any proposals that may emerge will be informed by intensive engagement with education stakeholders, including school leaders, teachers and their representative bodies, as well as advocacy organisations and disabled persons' organisations. Ongoing stakeholder engagement has to be and will remain central to this work. Department officials are maintaining regular contact with stakeholders across the education and disability sectors to ensure their crucial feedback informs any policy development in this area. We all agree that children and young people should receive supports aligned with their educational needs.

I am sure the Minister of State is aware, as he indicated in his response, of the level of concern. I have never seen anything like the reaction. The real concern, and the Minister of State has addressed some of it, was that consideration of the measure was at an advanced stage. The concern was that the measure was based on a New Brunswick model. New Brunswick has done a U-turn because the outcomes were not positive but the opposite. It is a failure when the resources are not put in place. I ask the Minister of State to respond to the following concern in his follow-up. There is a concern that this proposal is going to be wrapped up in the public sector pay talks and that a commitment will have to be given by teachers to secure increments or whatever else it might be. Is that the case? I ask for a "Yes" or "No" answer.

It is crucial in our commentary to note that special education is important to all of us, including the Minister, Deputy Naughton, and me. We are at a desperately early stage of negotiation. It is vital that any movement on special education brings in all the education partners. We have no intention of going backwards in terms of providing for specialised education across the system. We have invested significantly. We have again this year invested more money in special education and we continue to do so. Any changes in the future will have to be taken with our educational partners. They are crucial people, including school leaders, teachers, SNAs and everybody else. We must engage with them, families and disability organisations. There is no point in raising fears and tying these issues into the pay talks. These are the fundamental decisions that we are looking at. I assure the Deputy that we will not be making any decisions unless we have everybody on board. It is important that we give the impression that we want everybody on board before any decisions are taken.

I appreciate that response. I hope it will address some of the concern. As I said, there was some understanding that this negotiation was at quite an advanced stage and may be wrapped up in the public sector pay talks and, in other words, that the move was imminent. I hear from the Minister of State that negotiations are at an early stage. We would not have been in this position if we had real engagement up to this point. I call on the Minister of State to set out what that engagement is going to look like. I am conscious there is a forum and convention on education ongoing. It would seem appropriate that this would be a part of the conversation. Central to consideration of this are the issues of engagement and resources. Children will be failed if those two pillars are not in place. I ask the Minister of State to confirm that a move on this issue is not wrapped up in the public sector pay talks. I also ask him to set out how he will engage with all the stakeholders.

As I said in my reply, the work referred to by the Deputy is "at an early stage of development". I cannot be clearer on that. It is vitally important. He talked about resources. We are talking about €3.8 billion in the special education budget this year. That is up from €3 billion. We are investing. We understand the need right across the Department to provide specialised education. We have had huge engagement and investment over the last while. The huge investment in specialised education has been built on the backs of the school communities, the school leadership, the teachers, SNAs and all who work in the school communities who have really stepped up to the plate and have transformed special education over the last number of years and again over the last year or so. There is no sense that there is some backdoor channel or anything else. This is upfront. We are engaging very honestly and very meticulously with all the stakeholders because it is only with everybody on board that we can make changes to ensure we have the best possible special education into the future.